1. Field
Various embodiments relate to a semiconductor device and an operating method thereof, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device configured to control a wear leveling operation of a semiconductor memory device, and an operating method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A semiconductor memory device, such as for example a NAND flash memory device or phase change memory device, may have a relatively limited number of write requests that can be performed on a cell before the performance of that cell begins to deteriorate. For example, the limited amount of write requests may range from 106 to 108 for a phase change memory device.
In some cases, when write operations are relatively concentrated in a specific cell region, the lifespan of the entire memory device may be reduced. A wear leveling operation is often performed to uniformly distribute write operations over entire cell regions of the semiconductor memory device.
Typically when a write request is performed, a logical address received from a host is mapped to a physical address of the semiconductor memory device, and the write request is performed at the mapped physical address.